Christmas la Carol
by SiFi270
Summary: Christmas is soon approaching, but the people of Osaka will be spending it in a cold, ruined city unless Satsuki Kiryuin has a change of heart and donates to its reconstruction. But what force on this Earth could ever persuade her?
1. Chapter 1

It was no secret how much Kaneo Takara loved being the richest man in Osaka. He didn't care what others thought, and brought attention to his wealth as often as possible, spending money just to prove he had it. But at the same time, he was proud to have exhausted that wealth in its literal entirety in order to create the S.S. Naked Sun, a battleship that was instrumental in Ragyo Kiryuin's defeat.

But it was because of that sacrifice that he had no money to spend on rebuilding Osaka, which was burned to the ground in the same conflict. There were a number selfless people who volunteered to help out in any way they could, including Ryuko Matoi herself, but in the end it seemed there weren't enough people on board to make a difference.

Ryuko Matoi was not one to give in so easily though. She knew exactly what she could do to help the process along, because she had connections, namely her sister Satsuki.

Unfortunately, Satsuki was less than co-operative.

"I have known Mr. Takarada far longer than you have," she said. "I'm sure he's told you he needs that money, and that may be true, but it would be just as truthful to say that a heroin addict 'needs' heroin. What he really needs is rehabilitation."

Ryuko sighed. "I get that you've known him a long time, and I get that it was a constant feud. But I've seen a side of him you haven't. The side you saw never came down from his high horse, and the side I've seen is the result of him being forced off. Without all his money, he's powerless and vulnerable, and you can learn a lot about someone when they're in that state."

"Yeah!" Mako Mankanshoku inexplicably appeared from behind Ryuko. "It's like the Good Book says: Give a man a bagel, and he'll eat for a day, 'cause he's slow like that. Now, _teach_ a man to bagel, and he'll… um…" She leaned towards Ryuko and lowered her voice. "Ryuko, can you teach me how to bagel real quick?"

Ryuko looked at her regretfully.

Mako frowned before quickly returning to her usual demeanor. "Well anyway. Point is, it's Christmas! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

Satsuki just stared at her.

"Mako," Ryuko said, "I think you and I should go outside and talk in private for a moment."

"Sure!" Mako quickly made her way outside, and Ryuko followed her while giving Satsuki the same apologetic look she'd just given Mako. "What is it Ryuko?" She said when they were outside.

"Christmas…" Ryuko paused so she could briefly reconsider where to begin. "One of the best things about Christmas is spending quality time with family, right?"

"Right!" Mako beamed.

"Well," Ryuko said, once again beginning to hesitate. "You… can imagine why that wouldn't be one of the best things for Satsuki, right?"

Mako spent roughly a minute in silence, during which gears could be heard turning in her head. Then, finally.

"Oh," she said. "_Oh_."

Ryuko nodded. "I appreciate you trying to help me get through to her, but I don't think that's the right way."

Mako frowned. "So what _can_ we do?"

"That's not easy to answer," Ryuko said. "Just like anyone else in our family, she can be really stubborn. I think the best we can hope for right now is for her to decide on her own that she should help."

They soon went back inside, but at this point there wasn't any real energy left for debate. Ryuko and Satsuki's final exchanges before the former headed home could barely be considered sentences, and as Satsuki went to bed her mind felt like a tangled mess.

Still, there was one thought that stood out among the others. Satsuki had always been interested in trying to decipher Mako's thought process, and now was no different. Just what did Christmas have to do with anything? Satsuki was sure that whatever the answer to that may have been, it had no place outside of meaningless fairytales.

As she lay her head upon the pillow, she felt almost weighed down with the sour mood the day had ended on. Over an immeasurable period of time, the sensation began to feel more and more literal, until finally her eyes snapped open to check if there was actually something sitting on her.

And indeed there was something. Or rather, someone. And rather than sitting on her, they were floating above her in a crucified position with a presence that could still be felt from below, as if gravity brought his soul down but forgot about the rest of him.

"...who are you?" was her first question.

It appeared to be a student of Honnouji Academy, wearing a One-Star Ultima Uniform that, like Ira Gamagoori's Three-Star uniform, was bound in chains. Of course, this wasn't possible, as Honnouji Academy and the city it belonged to had both been destroyed months ago, and the Life Fibers that made up Ultima Uniforms were as good as extinct.

There was one more detail, regarding the boy in the uniform, that made the situation all the more confusing, but because Satsuki didn't recognize the boy, the detail didn't occur to her.

That last detail was that this boy, Touji Suzuki, was dead to begin with.

The register of his execution had been signed by Gamagoori, along with the rest of the Disciplinary committee. Satsuki had signed it, and Satsuki's name was the law in Honnou City. Young Suzuki was as dead as a doornail.

"I always wanted people to know who I was," he said. "That's why I took that one-star uniform, and in a way, it worked. The very next day, my body was hanging from the front of the Academy, as an example to anyone who tried to stand up to you." He chuckled. "I like to think that I had the opposite effect when Matoi showed up. I like to think that seeing me encouraged her to start her revolution. That's a big role, right?"

Satsuki was close to speechlessness at this point. "You're…"

"Who I am doesn't matter right now," he said. "Right now, I'm just a warning. Because I'm not the last ghost you'll be seeing tonight. And I'm not the last you'll recognize. You'll see three more after me, and each one will take you somewhere important." He suddenly looked up. "...I don't have time to explain anything else. But by the end of the night, you'll understand."

The chains around him began to unravel before floating towards the ceiling, dragging him with them.

Once he'd disappeared completely, Satsuki was left with nothing but a cold dread, the likes of which she hadn't felt since the days when her mother was alive.

* * *

A/N: Right after I wrote Mako's entrance, I heard applause from a sitcom audience in my head. Does that happen to anyone else?


	2. Chapter 2

_I'm not the last ghost you'll be seeing tonight. And I'm not the last you'll recognize._

This warning in particular intrigued Satsuki. Would the other ghosts also be people who died because of her actions? Was this their revenge? Satsuki's morally questionable past coming back to haunt her was nothing new. Rei Hououmaru had already taken that idea in a rather literal direction, and Satsuki thought that she'd finally moved on once she was done with that ordeal. So what point was there in going through this again?

When the promised ghost arrived, few of her questions were answered, but some of them no longer needed to be.

"I-Inumuta?" She stammered. "But… you're not dead."

"I am not dead," Inumuta's apparent doppelgänger said, "but I am not Houka Inumuta either. I am the Ghost of Christmas Past." He turned away from her. "Follow me, and you will understand."

Despite the growing dread she was still feeling, Satsuki did as she was told, and even when she saw him walking straight through the wall, she was quick to assume that under these circumstances she could do the same, and confirmed this by reaching forward. Once her entire body had passed through, she was surprised, not because she wasn't in the room normally on the other side of that wall, but because of where she _was_.

"It can't be," she said. "This is…"

"Elementary, Satsuki Kiryuin," he said. "The same one you attended with Nonon Jakuzure and…"

"Hey! Kiryuin!"

Satsuki quickly turned towards the source of the voice, but did a quick double take upon noticing someone else reacting to the same call. Although using the word 'else' would be misleading, because the person she saw was also Satsuki Kiryuin, minus over a decade of her life so far.

The younger Satsuki scowled when the person who had called her became visible. "What do you want, Takarada? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"I _can_ see you're busy," he said, "and that's the problem. It's Christmas! The whole world takes a break, so they can spend time with the people they love!"

"That may be how you see it," Satsuki said, "but for me the rest of the year is a break from _that_."

Takarada turned his back on her and shrugged. "You just don't get it, do you?" He headed home before receiving an answer.

"Apparently not," Satsuki muttered.

The current Satsuki spent a few minutes simply watching herself before another familiar face arrived.

"So," Nonon said flatly. "You planning on staying here forever?"

"More or less," Satsuki replied in the same tone. "I'm sure I shouldn't have to tell you why."

Nonon thought about what would be awaiting Satsuki at home and shuddered. "Well… Maybe you could stay at my place, just this once?"

Nonon usually wasn't one for manners, but at that moment Satsuki could very clearly see the word 'please' in her eyes. She saw other things in them as well, mainly hope, some hints of planning Nonon was to do while they were together, and…

The older Satsuki cringed upon remembering what it was she noticed. That was the moment she realized one of the biggest reasons that she was the only person Nonon had any respect for. Even though she recognized it instantly, it was something so unfamiliar to her, and she had no idea how to approach it.

And so Satsuki saw her former self decide: The best answer was not to approach it at all, but to drive it away until it was completely out of sight.

"I don't think I could," she finally said. "Doing something like that on such short notice may lead her to suspect something, and you know what happens when she suspects something. It's as I always say: The safest place to plot against her is right under her nose. So long as she can see me, she thinks I'm under her control."

"Oh," Nonon said. "Well… you're right. It'd be a bad idea. But maybe some other time? I mean, we've still got our whole lives ahead of us… assuming everything goes according to plan."

Satsuki didn't answer. In the years to come, she would still keep Nonon close, but even so she tried to avoid the full extent of the girl's affections at point blank range, and unfortunately, she was mostly successful in this endeavor.

Satsuki was reminded of the ghost's presence when she saw him wave his hand, causing an entire year to pass in a second. The younger Satsuki and Nonon were in just about the same place, and Nonon even made the same proposal again. She was turned down once again, and within two years, the elder Satsuki could see her struggling to just work up the courage and ask the question at all. On that year and the two that followed, she couldn't bring herself to do so, and when the next Christmas came she'd just given up entirely.

But it was only the second time around that Satsuki even noticed any of this. Back when Nonon still asked, the question was gone from Satsuki's memory by the end of the day to make room for supposedly more important things. It was only the second time around that Satsuki realized just what she was doing to Nonon, and it filled her with a regret that hurt her on a more personal level than anything she'd done as the tyrant of Honnou City.

"I see what you're trying to convey," she said, struggling to maintain her usual calm voice. "But I don't think I understand why you're trying to convey it."

"I must again stress that you'll understand in the near future," the ghost said. "But the future is not my domain. I can only show you the past, and the past is but one piece of the overall picture you need to see. For now, I shall return you home in anticipation of the next ghost."

"Very well," Satsuki said, looking visibly disappointed. When she got back, she found herself simply sitting on the end of her bed, waiting awkwardly for her next visit. She wasn't sure how the ghost would make its entrance, but the last thing she was expecting was for it to be accompanied by a heavenly chorus. And yet…

_HALLELUJAH_

"Hi!" Said the ghost, who looked suspiciously like Mako Mankanshoku. "I'm the Ghost of Christmas Present! It's nice to meet you!"

* * *

A/N: I was bad at timing my Christmas special last year as well. Just as I did then, I'm going to shift the final chapter deadline from "before christmas" to "before winter ends".


	3. Chapter 3

"So the good news is, this visit should be be a quick one," the ghost said. "The Boss says things get _weird_ if I stick around too long. But the bad news is I could end up making it a lot longer than necessary, since I have the memory of a goldfish and the attention span of a fruit fly and the memory of a gWHOA IT'S CHRISTMAS ALREADY"

"What?" Satsuki looked up to find herself at the front door of the house Ryuko shared with the real Mako and her family. "_...what?_"

"So anyway," the ghost said, "the good news is, this visit should be a quick one… Speaking of which, we should probably head inside."

The two of them phased through the front door, which Satsuki was expecting in a way. The absence of the Butterfly Effect during her visit to the past suggested to her that she was there in spirit, but not in body, and this seemed to be no different. Once she was inside, she found the real Mako covering as much of the ceiling as possible with mistletoe. Of course she was.

In a few minutes, Ryuko arrived, and Mako immediately stopped what she was doing to pounce-hug her.

"Merry Christmas, Mako," she chuckled. "It's good to see you too. By the way, I brought some friends."

Mako cast an excited glance towards the door Ryuko had come through, and was treated to the sight of three of Satsuki's Elite Four. It wasn't until she inspected more closely that she discovered that all four were present, but Nonon was busy sulking behind Gamagoori.

"Iori and Hououmaru will be here later on," Sanageyama said. "But as for Satsuki… Well…"

Nonon grumbled unintelligibly.

"Pretty much that," he said.

"But what about Takarada?" Mako said. "You did offer to let him stay here, didn't you Ryuko?"

Ryuko sighed. "I did… But it turns out he can be just as stubborn as Satsuki in some ways. He said if there's no place for the rest of Osaka, then there's no place for him either. So right now he's out there freezing his butt off with everyone else."

Mako gasped. "But that's not fair!"

"To him," Ryuko said, "it's fairer than being all snug in here while others are freezing to death."

"I guess…" Mako slumped down in defeat. "But still… Can't imagine this being much of a party without him."

"Welp, you heard me." The Ghost suddenly grabbed Satsuki by the shoulders and dragged her away. "Let's see what he's up to in Osaka, okay?"

Satsuki really wanted to say no, but her body wouldn't let her.

* * *

By the time she'd gotten back home again, Satsuki had seen something she never wanted to see again, and would do anything in her power to ensure that she didn't. Before the ghost left, it had apparently been speaking with 'The Boss' about whether or not 'Ignorance and Want' would be 'showing up in this one'. Satsuki had no idea what anything in quotes meant, of course, and not helping matters was the fact that she only heard the ghost's side of the conversation.

Again, she spent a long time sitting on the end of her bed, but this time she wasn't exactly waiting so much as she was getting a much needed break from the horrors she'd seen. Something the Ghost of Christmas Present had said during its conversation with 'The Boss' suggested that the worst was yet to come.

And indeed, when the final ghost appeared, Satsuki could tell it wasn't one to be taken lightly. It was a hooded figure that faced away from her, and Satsuki had no desire to see its front, or more specifically, what might have been under the hood. It soon walked, and she followed, still making sure to stay behind it.

The Christmas yet to come was a bleak one. The whole city was covered in snow, but the impenetrable canopy of clouds above made it look and somehow feel more like grey dirt. Satsuki couldn't see far, but she noticed a trio of elderly women a few yards away, two of them carrying opposite corners of something heavy while the other stayed ahead of them.

As Satsuki and the ghost came closer to the group, she noticed a familiar streak of red hair on one of the women, followed by the realization that she seemed considerably younger than the other two. The one helping her carry the heavy object was uncomfortably overweight, and had Mako's bun-shaped hairstyle with the brown fading from it.

Finally, the one at the front had her hair obscured by a large beret that Satsuki recognized from somewhere, but couldn't put her finger on it just yet. She appeared to have gotten smaller with age, and her hunchback-like posture wasn't helping that image.

It wasn't until the group reached their destination that Satsuki realized what they were carrying, and where they were taking it. As they let the coffin sink to the ground, Satsuki's heart sank with it, and the gravestones surrounding her suddenly seemed much larger. With an impatient cough from the smallest of the women, the barren funeral service began.

"It means a lot to me that you both came here today," the youthful looking woman said. She turned to address the small woman. "I'm particularly surprised you agreed to come after everything you sai-"

"Shut it," the small woman said. "I didn't come here to mourn like you did. And I didn't come here to listen to _your_ pathetic mourning. I came here so I could finally get a word in."

"Listen," the youthful woman said, "I was hoping today we could focus on who she was, instead of who she became…"

"Oh, she didn't 'become' anything," the small woman said, looking directly at the coffin. "It was just natural progression. She's been pushing me further and further away all these years, but now I'm back! And I am disappointed, but not at all surprised.

"It wasn't long after I last saw you before I realized where you'd gone wrong, and where _I'd_ gone wrong. It was all genetics, really. We all thought that when _she_ died, you'd be free from her influence. But you refused to change. You couldn't go back to a normal life if you never had one to begin with.

"But even then, there was a big difference between you and her. It's the same distance that probably kept your sister from losing her way. The difference is, your mother had people who cared about her, and she cared back!" Finally, she punctuated her speech by kicking the coffin. "Rot in Hell, Satsuki Kiryuin!" She screamed. "I'm glad you're finally dead!"

Before another word could be spoken, she ran out of sight, covering her face with one arm. After she'd disappeared, a distant sobbing could be heard. But if Satsuki was physically present, then her own cries would easily have drowned it out.

"_Why?_" She demanded from the ghost. "Why are you tormenting me like this? _Why do I have to see this?_"

For the first time, the ghost turned towards her, and while Satsuki still refused to look under the hood, she could identify a multicolored glow coming from there.

"Because I don't want you to share my fate," the ghost said.

* * *

Before she could process the implications of those last words, Satsuki awoke with a start. She spent the first few minutes of the morning hyperventilating, and the next few repeatedly splashing water from the bathroom sink onto her face. Once she accepted that she wouldn't fully recover from the shock she'd just received any time soon, her day truly began.

_Today,_ she thought, _I will set things right._

* * *

A/N: IT'S STILL WINTER IT SNOWED YESTERDAY

Seriously though sorry I took so long I'm hoping the same won't be true for the epilogue.


	4. Chapter 4

"Excuse me," Satsuki said, "is this where the donations are made?"

"Yes, it i-" The woman she was speaking to did a sudden double take. "Aren't you…?"

Satsuki immediately shushed her. "I'd like to make this as quick as possible."

"Yes, very well," she said. "Um… what shall I put you down for?"

"Nothing," Satsuki said.

"...nothing?" She said. "You came here just to tell us you won't donate anything?"

"I…" Satsuki paused to recognize the misunderstanding and figure out how best to sort it out. "What I meant is that I wish to be anonymous. As for how much I wish to donate…" She began to whisper.

* * *

"Mister Takarada, sir? You'll want to hear about this."

Kaneo's bloodshot eyes moved towards the secretary at the doorway. "What is it?"

"We've just received an anonymous donation," she said.

"Really?" He said, sounding apathetic. "How much?"

"Well," she cleared her throat, "rounded to the nearest billion, it's something like…"

It took her just over ten seconds to recite the number, but during those ten seconds, Takarada could practically see his proverbial high horse rushing back to him, until finally he was standing proudly on its back with a familiar twinkle back in his eye.

"Then what are we waiting for?" He said. "With the hard work that can afford, we'll easily have a roof above us by Christmas day!"

* * *

Even after last night had forced Satsuki to realize how distant she'd become from Nonon, it still astounded her to realize that this was the first time she'd actually been to Nonon's house.

"Hello?" Nonon opened the door while rubbing some sleep out of her eyes and wearing the cutest dressing gown and slippers Satsuki had ever seen. "What do you… Satsuki?"

"Good morning, Nonon," Satsuki said. "I just wanted to come and wish you a merry Christmas."

"Christma-" Nonon took a moment to remember what day it was. "You're sounding like the underachiever. Christmas is weeks away."

Satsuki went silent and made the same calculations Nonon just had. Of course it wasn't today. If the ghosts, assuming they were real, had waited until the very last night to warn her, there'd be no time to make any meaningful progress in Osaka.

"...so it is," she finally said. "But you know me. I am a person who believes in making lots and lots of plans. If I'm welcome in your house, we could plan for what we can do on Christmas day together."

Nonon's jaw dropped. "R… really?"

Satsuki nodded.

"In that case…" Nonon stood aside, allowing her to enter. "I really hope this isn't a dream."

* * *

When Christmas day finally arrived, things were in full swing at the Mankanshoku household. As expected, Mako was busy attaching as much mistletoe to the ceiling as possible, but that was all put on standby when Ryuko arrived with some friends.

While most of the Elite Four was present, Nonon was the one exception to this. But in her place was someone Mako was far more excited to see, and someone who looked very excited to be there.

"What's up everyone?" Takarada beamed. "Seriously, what have you been doing, because it can't have been a party unless someone else already brought… kushikatsu!"

And that was enough for it to be the best Christmas Mako had ever had.

But it was about to get better. Nonon soon made her appearance, looking more into the Christmas spirit than anyone could have reasonably expected her to be. Mako thought she knew why when she noticed that Nonon's hand was intertwined with someone else's, but that someone else was currently stood too far to the side of the doorway to be easily identified.

Just as she was about to enter, Nonon realized what Mako had done to the ceiling and pointed it out to the person with her, who, shaking off their deja vu, brought their head into view to kiss her, surprising quite a few when she finally turned out to be Satsuki.

"Satsuki!" Mako said. "You're just in time to see Mataro make a miraculous recovery from that awful disease that hunts down kids his size every Christmas!"

To many present, including Ryuko, this was the first they'd heard of such a thing, and their shocked looks towards Mako said so quite clearly.

"Are you _still_ spreading rumors about that?" Mataro said. "I keep telling you, it's just a cough. Dad _triple checked_ me just to shut you up, remember?"

"Oh, is that what that was about?" Mako said. "In that case, since it's really official that you're not going to die, aren't you going to say it?"

"Say wha-" He was interrupted by his sister shoving a cue card in his face. "Oh. Seriously?" A quick look into Mako's eyes reminded him that she was always serious. With a sigh, he met her expectations.

"God bless us, everyone."

* * *

By the end of the day, Satsuki finally saw the appeal in spending Christmas with loved ones, but she found it exhausting nonetheless. She left the party after being assured that she wouldn't disappoint anyone in doing so and they were glad she'd attended for as long as she had, and Nonon quickly followed. Soon, they were both relaxing in armchairs at home, until Nonon felt the need to discuss a fairly uncomfortable issue.

"That dream you had," she began. "You still haven't told anyone other than me about it, have you?"

Satsuki braced herself for what she knew wouldn't be an easy conversation. "Not yet, no."

"A few of them can already tell something's wrong," Nonon said. "Matoi and Soroi in particular."

"They would be the first I'd tell," Satsuki noted. "But it doesn't surprise me that they've worked it out on their own. In addition, Mankanshoku may or may not be dropping hints that she actually remembers being the Ghost of Christmas Present. As always, it's impossible to tell with her."

Nonon rested her face in her palm. "Great. This was already heavy enough without any 'maybe it's more than a dream' tacked onto it. I mean, if she was really there as a ghost, then what does that mean for the oth…"

She stopped herself upon realizing they'd already reached the most disturbing part of this subject: the final ghost.

"That's another part that makes me wonder," Satsuki said. "Dreams are a product of one's own mind, and I find it hard to believe that the idea of _her_ regretting any of her atrocities would have been anywhere in my mind before that night."

"I know what you mean," Nonon said. "Kind of makes me wonder what could have happened on the other side to change her mind."

Satsuki shifted into a more relaxed position in her chair, looking like she was minutes away from falling asleep. "Perhaps it's best if we never find out."

* * *

A/N: Remember at the end of last chapter when I argued that it was still winter because it snowed? Yeah, turns out it was some kind of super snow that cryogenically froze me for nearly two years. In conclusion, I would describe the experience as both chilling and incredibly plausible. Merry Christmas.


End file.
